A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle

A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle - Being a facsimile reproduction of the first book on the subject of fishing printed in England by Wynkyn de Worde at Westminster in 1496

HE scholarly angler is here presented with an exact facsimile of the first English treatise on fishing. The book is of extreme interest for several reasons, not the least curious being that it has served as a literary quarry to so many succeeding writers on fishing, who have not disdained to adapt the authoresss sentiments to their own use, and even to borrow them word for word without acknowledgment. Walton himself was evidently familiar with it, and has clearly taken his jury of flies from its xij flyes wyth whyche ye shall angle to ye trought & grayllyng; while Burton, that universal plunderer, has extracted her eloquent eulogy on the secondary pleasures of angling for incorporation with the patchwork structure of his Anatomy of Melancholy. Besides giving the earliest account of the art of fishing, the estimate which the authoress forms of the moral value of the craft is not only very high, but has served to strike the keynote for all subsequent followers of the art both in their praises and their practice of it. To this little treatise more than to any other belongs the credit of having assigned in popular estimation to the angler his meditative and gentle nature. Many pure and noble intellects have kindled into lasting devotion to angling on reading her eloquent commendation of it. Such men as Donne, Wotton, and Herbert, Paley, Bell, and Davy, together with many another excellent and simple disposition, have caught enthusiasm from her lofty sentiments, and found that not their bodily health only, but also their morals, were improved by angling. It became a school of virtues, a quiet pastime in which, while looking into their own hearts, they learnt lessons of the highest wisdom, reverence, resignation, and lovelove of their fellow-men, of the lower creatures, and of their Creator. Nothing definite is known of the reputed authoress, Dame Juliana Barnes or Berners. She is said to have been a daughter of Sir James Berners of Roding Berners in the county of Essex, a favourite of King Richard the Second, who was beheaded in 1388 as an evil counsellor to the king and an enemy to the public weal. She was celebrated for her extreme beauty and great learning, and is reported to have held the office of prioress of the Benedictine Nunnery of Sopwell in Hertfordshire, a cell to the Abbey of St. Alban, but of this no documentary evidence exists. The first edition of her Book of St. Albans, printed by the schoolmaster-printer of St. Albans in 1486, treats of hawking, hunting, and coat-armour. In the next edition, Enprynted at Westmestre by Wynkyn the Worde the yere of thyncarnacn of our lorde.M.CCCC.lxxxxvi, among the other treatyfes perteynynge to hawkynge & huntynge with other dyuers playsaunt materes belongynge vnto noblesse, appeared the present treatise on angling. The aristocratic instincts of the authoress prompted this mode of publication, as she herself explains in the concluding paragraphby cause that this present treatyse sholde not come to the hondys of eche ydle persone whyche wolde desire it yf it were enprynted allone by itself & put in a lytyll plaunflet, therfore I haue compylyd it in a greter volume of dyuerse bokys concernynge to gentyll & noble men to the entent that the forsayd ydle persones whyche sholde haue but lytyll mesure in the sayd dysporte of fysshyng sholde not by this meane vtterly dystroye it. The present publication is the little pamphlet which was enclosed in this greater volume. An edition of it as a distinct treatise appears to have been issued by Wynkyn de Worde soon after that of 1496, with the title, Here begynnyth a treatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle over the curious woodcut of the man fishing which is on the first page of the present facsimile, but only one copy of it is known to be in existence. At least ten more editions appeared before the year 1600. This shows the great popularity of the book at the time of its publication, and considering how human nature remains the same, and the charms of angling are equally grateful to every fresh generation of anglers, affords a sufficient reason for the strong antiquarian delight which all literary anglers of the present century have felt in the book. It is worth while briefly to trace the bibliography of angling onwards until the appearance in 1653 of Waltons Compleat Angler, when the reader will be on familiar ground. In the interval of more than a hundred and fifty years between these two names of Berners and Walton, so deeply reverenced by every true scholar of the craft, there occur but four books on angling, though each one of these possesses a fame peculiar to itself. First came Leonard Mascalls Booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line, published in 1590. Taverners Certaine Experiments concerning Fish and Fruite followed in 1600. Then came in 1613 the Secrets of Angling of the celebrated angling poet, J. D. [John Dennys], whose verses have perhaps never yet been surpassed; and finally, in 1651, appeared Barkers Art of Angling. With this fisherman and ambassadors cook, as he calls himself, Walton must often have conversed. It is a further testimony to the attractions which angling has always possessed for contemplative natures that the art appears here systematised, so to speak, as early as the middle of the fifteenth century in England, where it has been practised ever since with more enthusiasm and skill than in other countries. There is a sad gap in angling literature from the days of Ausonius, at the commencement of the fourth century, to those of Dame Juliana Berners. Fly-fishing, indeed, is not named between the time of lian and that of the Treatyse. It is clearly described by the former writer, who alone among the ancients mentions it, but in the present book it is spoken of under the term angling with a dubbe, as if it were well-known and practised. Not only so, but it is clear that the writer had books of angling lore before her, perhaps monkish manuscripts, as Hawkins suggests, which would be of inestimable interest could they now be recovered. Thus in speaking of the carp, the reader will find she writesas touchynge his baytes I haue but lytyll knowlege of it. And me were loth to wryte more than I knowe & haue prouyd. But well I wote that the redde worme & the menow ben good baytys for hym at all tymes as I haue herde saye of persones credyble & also founde wryten in bokes of credence. No better rules can be given for fly-fishing at present than the two which she prescribes for anglingfor the fyrste and pryncypall poynt in anglynge:kepe ye euer fro the water fro the sighte of the fysshe, and also loke that ye shadow not the water as moche as ye may. The troughte is to be angled for wyth a dubbe [artificial fly] in lepynge time; but as for the salmon, ye may take hym:but it is seldom seen with a dubbe at suche tyme as whan he lepith in lyke fourme & manere as ye doo take a troughte or a gryalynge. With the imperfect tackle and clumsy rod of those days, it is no wonder that the capture of salmon with a fly, which is still the crowning achievement of the craft, could seldom be effected. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 57943
Author: Berners, Juliana
Release Date: Sep 21, 2018
Format: eBook
Language: English